Howards End is on the Landing: A year of reading from home - Tapa dura

A totally beguiling, utterly persuasive, argument for reimmersing yourself in literature's past... it reminds you of the overlooked treasures we miss in the chase for novelty. Hill's work is part memoir, part outpouring of affection for these she has loved and, en route, she provides us with a reading list the equal of any degree course (Michael Gove The Times 2009-10-12)

An impressionistic autobiography... offers fascinating sketches of literary and artistic figures she has known... an eloquent advocate [for] the virtues of wide-ranging, deeply felt and considered reading... to be cherished (Michael Arditti Daily Telegraph 2009-10-10)

Evoked with precision and grace... She is nicely opinionated throughout... She is whimsical and intimate, scattering rhetorical questions and colloquial half-sentences... beguiling (Victoria Glendinning Spectator 2009-10-03)

[A] vividly experienced journey... viewing books and their authors with a learned, gossipy warmth. She understands that the best books make great companions, and this one is no exception (Metro)

The blend of book chat and personal memoir, though apparently serendipitous, is associative and intimate (Iain Finlayson The Times 2009-10-17)

A light-hearted memoir using books as anchors on which to fasten life experiences. Funny, educational and occasionally surprising (Catholic Herald 2009-10-09)

What a delightful book this is - and so old-fashioned in approach almost to be trendy... a timeless creation, a vademecum which will give endless pleasure not only to Hill's many admirers but also to anyone who values books... An engaging and buoyant book (Herald 2009-10-10)

Hill's style is vivid and measured and the book is both a passionate reminder of the importance of reading and a revealing glimpse of a writer's life (Jessica Holland Observer 2009-10-25)

Delightful... an idiosyncratic commingling of fiction, non-fiction and poetry...Hill has a voracious and varied appetite and her taste, with a few exceptions, is impeccable (Leo Robson New Statesman 2009-10-26)

A patchwork of literary musing, quotation and anecdote, the memoir's texture is wholesome and cosy; an indulgent quilt in which to nestle before the blazing hearth of literary tradition drawn by its author (Caroline Howitt Times Literary Supplement 2009-10-23)